In its campaign to expand NATO to the borders of Russia, Washington is backing a fascist-infested government in Ukraine that is using gunfire to prevent activities in defiance of it, including a peaceful referendum for self-rule. This vote is attacked by the main U.S. media and by the State Department as “separatist” and “Russian controlled,” though the Russian president opposed it. Violent government attacks on voters and organizers in at least two cities are passed over without comment. It is apparent that Washington is promoting a civil war in Ukraine.

While complaining that “the voting took place in such a raw state of lawlessness that no one other than the organizers and perhaps their Russian patrons seemed likely to accept the results as a democratic expression of the voters’ will,” the NY Times today reported on at least two shootings by the Kiev regime intended to prevent the Eastern Ukrainians from expressing their will:

“A Ukrainian national guard unit known as the Dnepr Brigade appeared and broke up the voting [in Krasnoarmiysk]. Organizers grabbed the boxes of cast ballots and ran, presumably intending to count them later, and the soldiers took up positions in the City Hall building where a secessionist polling station had been operating on the steps.”

“Ukrainian soldiers … fired into a crowd that was blocking national guard armored vehicles near the village of Baranikovka, the [Interfax] agency said; two people were wounded.”

By preceding their facts about government violence with editorializing and lies directed against the voters and vote organizers, the Times broadcasts its role in advocating war.

The State Department spokeswoman commented that the referenda are “illegal under Ukrainian law, and are an attempt to create further division and disorder,” signalling U.S. endorsement of the violence by its client government in Kiev.

Antiwar groups in the U.S. have called for days of action this month to protest the growing intervention in Ukraine by NATO and the U.S.

(This article does NOT reflect the official position of The Socialist Party USA or the Editorial Board of The Socialist.)